Case Study : eBay Partner Network's Quality Click Pricing Exposed

In August eBay introduced a revolutionary new performance based remuneration model called Quality Click Pricing (QCP) - Join the team at eBay at this eyebrow raising session which will expose why eBay
…

In August eBay introduced a revolutionary new performance based remuneration model called Quality Click Pricing (QCP) - Join the team at eBay at this eyebrow raising session which will expose why eBay have introduced Quality Click Pricing - Uncover what the difficult questions all affiliate managers should be asking themselves, what affiliates can to improve the quality of their traffic and what this all means for the rest of the affiliate industry!

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Affiliate industry has been too complacent over concerns Networks and affiliate managers often have incentives misaligned with asking these questions “ I let my network deal with who’s on the programme” “ I know there’s some fraud in there, so I just pay 20% less per lead than I would for the same lead from SEM” “ I don’t care where the traffic comes from, as long as the numbers look good”

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What are the difficult questions we should all be asking? “ Did the affiliate’s efforts generate the lead/ sale?” “ Does the size of an affiliate matter?” “ Are my good affiliate numbers driving business performance?” “ How do you keep compensation structures simple but reward for all benefits affiliates bring?” “ Are the affiliate’s leads worth what you pay for them?”

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How have we dealt with these issues in the past? Improved front-door security Better defined Ts and Cs Investment in fraud detection Removed lowest quality affiliates Since launching eBay Partner Network: Now adapting pricing to reward good affiliates and reduce incentive for fraud

Item bought on eBay Time from click to purchase “ Did the affiliate’s efforts generate the lead/ sale?” More incremental sales driven by affiliates weighted more heavily 15 mins 7 days

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How does Quality Click Pricing address difficult questions? “ Are the affiliate’s leads worth what you pay for them?” Quality Click Pricing pays affiliates for value of their leads Value Index Average value per lead by publisher - illustrative Not compensating the best affiliates for traffic they bring Rank-ordered affiliates Average Payout under old model Large numbers of affiliates driving below-average leads

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How does Quality Click Pricing address difficult questions? “ Does the size of an affiliate matter?” CPC based on quality, not quantity, of traffic Revenue per click for different sizes of affiliates in eBay Partner Network (Data for October 2008)

Rewards for incremental sales and leads – not just cookies dropped on users’ machines!

Fraud indicators built into algorithm

“ How do you keep compensation structures simple but reward for all benefits affiliates bring?”

Publishers get a single variable (EPC) to optimise for

Earnings calculation incorporates revenue from variety of sources

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What does this mean for affiliates? Concentrate on adding value for the user and the merchant Ensure your site is relevant for the merchant Develop a great end to end user experience NOT Take care of inbound traffic sources Optimise, Optimise, Optimise!

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Our hopes for the affiliate industry Engage with the difficult questions “ Did the affiliate’s efforts generate the lead/ sale?” “ Does the size of an affiliate matter?” “ Are my good affiliate numbers driving business performance?” “ How do you keep compensation structures simple but reward for all benefits affiliates bring?” “ Are the affiliate’s leads worth what you pay for them?”

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Our hopes for the affiliate industry Engage with the difficult questions Demand more from your network Where is my traffic coming from? How are applications vetted? Is this in my company’s best interests? How do you guard against fraud?

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Our hopes for the affiliate industry Engage with the difficult questions Demand more from your network Support the good affiliates! Tools Data Education